1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to information processing apparatuses, information processing methods, and programs. In particular, the present invention relates to an information processing apparatus, an information processing method, and a program capable of avoiding an occurrence of a state in which the preference of a user is indeterminable in application of a method using feedback information (particularly, IFB) about content from the user to perform appropriate processing.
2. Description of the Related Art
Systems for recommending content items, such as music tunes or moving images, to users are proposed and called recommendation systems. Such recommendation systems adopt methods using explicit feedback information (hereinafter referred to as EFB) or methods using implicit feedback information (hereinafter referred to as IFB) in order to determine the preferences of the users for target content items. In the methods using the EFB, the users are directly asked about the presence of interest in the target content items. In the methods using the IFB, the presence of interest in the target content items is estimated from users' operations with devices (refer to PCT Japanese Translation Patent Publication No. 2004-519902, Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2005-32167, and Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2001-100888).
In general, the methods using the EFB have problems in the designs of user interfaces because the methods impose burdens on the users. Since frequent inputs by the users are not expected even if natural interfaces can be designed, it is not possible to collect data sufficient to learn the preference of the users. Accordingly, the methods using the IFB attract attention.
For example, as for music content, various users' operations with devices to play back the music content are adopted as the IFB. In the methods using the IFB in related art, the preference scores associated with certain users' operations with devices are acquired and the acquired preference scores are learned (stored) to determine the preferences of the users. Specifically, a preference score of +1 is acquired when a user performs a playback operation, a preference score of −1 is acquired when the user performs a fast-forward, pause, or skip operation, and a preference score of −5 is acquired when the user performs a clear operation. In addition, various operations can be scored in detail. For example, in a state in which all playback is selected, a preference score of +2 is acquired when the user performs the normal playback operation, a preference score of +3 is acquired when the user performs the playback operation after the skip operation, and a preference score of +1 is acquired when the user views related information.